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France 24
France 24
World

'I haven't seen my wife or my children': The Gazan journalists reporting on life under the bombs

Gazan journalists continue to report on the situation in the Palestinian enclave, which is under constant bombardment from the Israeli army. © Observers

While the international media have no access to the Gaza Strip, Gazans themselves, both civilians and professional journalists, continue to report on the situation on the ground, risking their lives in the process. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to one of them. 

Nineteen days after the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, the Gaza Strip is still under continuous bombardment from Israel. The zone remains cut off from international media.

No journalist has been able to leave or enter the Palestinian enclave. 

Caught between the bombardments and the Israeli blockade, local correspondents and citizen journalists are continuing to report on the situation on the ground.    

Madhat Hajjaj is one of them.

I'm a cameraman and editor. When the war started [on 7 October], I went out to film the bombings. When the war intensified, the Iraqi television station with which I was working ceased its activities because it was unable to guarantee my safety or compensate me for any damage if anything happened to me.

Since the first days of the war, I haven't seen my wife, my children or my parents. I left home on the first day of the war with my equipment and my bullet-proof vest. 

I help a lot of journalists, including those working with international channels. I use the computer and Internet made available to me by the Government Information Office in Gaza. 

We film the arrival of the victims and put the images on the Internet, which we then send to foreign journalists.

On Wednesday 25 October, family members of two Palestinian journalists were killed in the bombardments: Wael Al-Dahdouh, a well-known journalist working for the Arabic-language Al Jazeera channel, and Mohammad Farra, a journalist based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, whose family lives in Gaza. 

According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, more than 7,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli air strikes since October 7.

At least 19 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

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